The weird and outright inappropriate inventions at Japan's Digital Contents Expo include a fembot who doesn't just visit the uncanny valley, she owns it. Plus a helmet that yanks on your ears to guide you, and a bad-breath game.

The Digital Contents Expo includes some actual, serious inventions — check out Gizmodo's report on the cool-as-hell standalone 3-D viewer — but it also includes some goofy shit. Including the funbrella, an umbrella that drenches you with simulated rain. Huh? And a video game where you eat lots of stinky foods and then blast the monsters on the screen with the worst bad breath possible, through a blow gun. According to AFP:

Looks like Sony's 3D ambitions don't end with plans to bring 3D to Bravia TVs, the PS3,…
Read more Read more

A clear crowd-pleaser at the four-day event was a blowgun videogame by the Kanazawa Institute of Technology where the enemies are a scary line-up of monsters including a vampire, a bat and a club-wielding ogre.

Rather than fire bullets, darts or lasers at the fearsome adversaries, players of all ages eat snacks and sip drinks to boost the smell of their breath, then blast stinky bad breath balls at the screen to kill the monsters.

"Your children may shun you when you come home reeking of alcohol, but this could make you a family hero," said Yusuke Sasayama, a Kanazawa Institute engineering student and one of the brains behind the game.

Osaka University graduate students, meanwhile, wowed audiences with their "Funbrella" — the perfect gift for people who hate sunny days — which uses a technology the inventors called the "tele-rain" system.
A humanoid robot shows off her skills during the technology fair

A humanoid robot, HRP-4C, developed by Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) shows off her skills during the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo. A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun and a rain-simulating "funbrella" are two of the bizarre gadgets that went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies.

A vibrating device on the gadget simulates the sensation of raindrops hitting the umbrella, and there are advanced settings for hails of marbles, snakes and other objects that don't usually fall from the sky.

But that's not all — there's also a helmet that steers you by pulling on your ears. Plus a weird virtual reality egg. Check out the gallery of badness (Sadly, no pics of the funbrella or the bad-breath game, that I could find.) Photos by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty.

Advertisement

A humanoid robot, HRP-4C, developed by Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) shows off her skills during the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun, a rain-simulating 'funbrella' and a navigation-aid helmet that steers users by pulling their ears: welcome to Japan's latest whacky inventions. These bizarre gadgets and more — some of them useful, most of them fun — went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies that opened on October 22. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

A humanoid robot, HRP-4C, developed by Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) shows off her skills during the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun, a rain-simulating 'funbrella' and a navigation-aid helmet that steers users by pulling their ears: welcome to Japan's latest whacky inventions. These bizarre gadgets and more — some of them useful, most of them fun — went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies that opened on October 22. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

Hiroo Iwata (L), a professor at Japan's Tsukuba University, presents his virtual reality machine 'Media Vehicle' at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun, a rain-simulating 'funbrella' and a navigation-aid helmet that steers users by pulling their ears: welcome to Japan's latest whacky inventions. These bizarre gadgets and more — some of them useful, most of them fun — went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies that opened on October 22. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

Hiroo Iwata (L), a professor at Japan's Tsukuba University, presents his virtual reality machine 'Media Vehicle' at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun, a rain-simulating 'funbrella' and a navigation-aid helmet that steers users by pulling their ears: welcome to Japan's latest whacky inventions. These bizarre gadgets and more — some of them useful, most of them fun — went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies that opened on October 22. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

Tokyo University of Electro-Communications postdoctoral student Yuichiro Kojima wears headgear named the 'Pull-Navi' which directs the wearer by applying pressure to the ear at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. Gadgets and inventions will be on display at this high-tech exhibition until October 25. AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

Tokyo University of Electro-Communications postdoctoral student Yuichiro Kojima wears headgear named the 'Pull-Navi' which directs the wearer by applying pressure to the ear at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22, 2009. Gadgets and inventions will be on display at this high-tech exhibition until October 25. AFP PHOTO/Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)